Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne

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Diocese of Cloyne Dioecesis Cloynensis Deoise Chluana
Colman of Cloyne
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	William Crean
Vicar General	Anthony O’Brien
Bishops emeritus	John Magee
Map
Website
cloynediocese.ie

The Diocese of Cloyne (Irish: Deoise Chluana)^[1] is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Ireland. It is one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel (also known as Munster).^[2]

Geographic remit

Cloyne diocese is located in the northern and eastern parts of County Cork. The major towns in the diocese are Cobh, Fermoy, Mallow, Midleton and Youghal. The population is over 120,000 people.^{[citation needed]}

History

The diocese has its beginnings in the monastic settlement of

Cloyne was later to become the centre of an extensive diocese in Munster. For eight centuries it was the residence of the Bishops of Cloyne and the setting for the cathedral. As the metropolitan archdiocese of Cashel was co-extensive with the over-kingdom of Munster, so many of the dioceses were co-extensive with petty kingdoms that owed their loyalty to Cashel. Fergal, Abbot-Bishop of Cloyne, was massacred in 888 by the Danes. There are seven recorded devastations of Cloyne from 822 to 1137. In 1152 at the Synod of Kells, Cloyne was made one of Cashel's twelve suffragan sees. The territories of the MacCarthy dynasty in north west Cork, together with the kingdoms of Fermoy and Imokilly, came to make up the new diocese of Cloyne.^[4] Neighbouring Lismore diocese was severely pruned at Kells. It lost all jurisdiction in present-day County Cork (excepting Kilworth parish) to Cloyne.

Diocese of Cloyne and Cork (1429-1747)

Robbery of church property by nobles impoverished the Sees of Cloyne and Cork, which were united in 1429, by papal authority, under Bishop Purcell. Blessed Thaddeus MacCarthy was bishop from 1490 to 1492. The bishops of penal times were ruthlessly persecuted, and some suffered cruel imprisonment or died in exile.^[5]

Diocese of Cloyne and Ross (1748-1850)

John O'Brien author of an Irish dictionary, poems, and tracts, was Bishop of Cloyne and Ross from 1748 to 1769. He died in exile in Lyons.^[6] Since 1769 the Bishops of Cloyne, with the exception of Dr. Timothy Murphy, resided at Cobh (formerly Queenstown) on the north side of Cork Harbour.

Diocese of Cloyne

The Dioceses of Cloyne and Ross were separated in 1850. Following the relaxation of the worst elements of the

The following is a basic list of Roman Catholic bishops since 1850.^[7]

Notable clergy

The novelist

Archbishop Thomas Croke was born in 1824 at Castlecor and ordained for the diocese of Cloyne at Paris in 1824. Having been professor in the Irish College in Paris for almost twelve years, he returned to Ireland and was appointed president of St. Colman's College, Fermoy in 1858. In 1865, he became parish priest of Doneraile. Nominated Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1870, he was translated to the Archdiocese of Cashel in Ireland in 1875. He died in 1902.

Bartholomew MacCarthy, Celtic scholar and editor of the Stowe Missal, was born at Conna, Ballynoe, County Cork in 1843. He was ordained in Rome in 1869. On his return to Ireland he was appointed professor of Classics at St. Colman's. He went as curate to Mitchelstown and afterwards to Macroom and Youghal. In 1895 he was appointed parish priest of Inniscarra, near Cork, where he died.^{[citation needed]}

Today

Bishop

The diocese was the subject of a report, the

On 4 February 2010, Bishop John Magee requested Pope Benedict to relieve him of his duties, saying that he would use the time to "devote the necessary time and energy to cooperating fully with the government Commission of Inquiry into child protection practices and procedures in the diocese of Cloyne" which up to this point had been handled by Denis O'Callaghan. In accordance with canon law, an apostolic administrator was named for an open-ended interim period. Bishop Magee resigned on 24 March 2010 upon learning of the full gravity of the revelations of the report. Bishop Magee now resides in a North Cork town and is frequently invited to presided at various religious and Eucharistic celebrations overseas, particularly in Italy.^[14]

See also

• Catholic Church in Ireland
• Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross (Church of Ireland)

References